The Idaho Way: New Year’s resolutions for Idaho Gov. Brad Little’s second term
By Scott McIntosh, opinion editor
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Idaho Gov. Brad Little is scheduled to be sworn in for his second term as governor at noon today, and he’s scheduled to give his State of the State address on Monday.
Little, 68, begins his second and possibly final term as Idaho’s governor, meaning he has four years to build his legacy and determine whether that legacy lasts for generations or is quickly forgotten.
When he gives his State of the State address on Monday, Little will be delivering it to a Legislature composed of nearly 40% new members from the previous term, a huge turnover that could present challenges to his agenda.
Little has guided the ship with a steady hand in his first term. His second term should be marked by visionary leadership and courage.
Both of those traits will be tested this session. How he handles it likely will cement how he is remembered as governor.
So the Idaho Statesman editorial board put together a list of New Year’s resolutions we’d like to see Little adopt as he ventures into his second term in office.
Read the full list of priorities here.
Idaho GOP rules proposal
The Idaho Republican Party’s State Central Committee will consider several changes to its rules over the weekend at its 2023 winter meeting, according to Kelcie Moseley-Morris of the Idaho Capital Sun, including a policy that would allow the party’s committee members to question the conduct of a Republican elected official and consider punishment for deviating from the party platform.
Several Idaho Republicans have come out publicly against the rule changes, including former state senator and secretary of state candidate Mary Souza.
“They honestly believe you are too dumb to make the decision yourself, so they will tell you how vote,” she writes in a guest column this week. “I’m not making this up! I have been told this, to my face, by several key players in this charade.”
In a separate guest opinion, current state Sen. Ben Adams and Reps. Jeff Ehlers, Kevin Andrus, James Petzke and Dustin Manwaring voice their opposition to the rule changes as well.
“It has come to our attention that on Jan. 6-7, the Idaho Republican Party will be voting on two proposed rule changes that will have a significant impact on how younger voters are able to participate in Idaho politics.”
You can read their full guest opinion piece here.
University of Idaho killings update
Quadruple homicide suspect Bryan Kohberger nodded along in a Latah County courtroom Thursday morning as a judge read the five charges against him: four counts of murder in the first degree and a felony burglary charge in the killing of four University of Idaho students.
Read the full story here from Idaho Statesman reporter Angela Palermo, who was in the courtroom.
House speaker debacle
U.S. Rep. Russ Fulcher, R-Idaho, is a member of the House Freedom Caucus, and some members of that group are standing in the way of Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s quest for the House speaker’s position. Fulcher is not part of that effort; he strongly supports McCarthy and thinks his fellow Republicans should get on with the business at hand.
“This does not bode well for Republicans,” Fulcher told guest columnist Chuck Malloy. “It makes it look as though we are incapable of governing, and that’s not the impression we want to give.”
Read Chuck’s full column here on Fulcher’s take on the whole House speaker debacle.
I mean, who could have predicted that the Republican majority in the House would be completely and utterly unable to govern?
Idaho abortion ban
It should come as no surprise that the Idaho Supreme Court on Thursday issued a ruling upholding Idaho’s abortion ban. The justices didn’t have to do much work; all they had to do was copy and paste from the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade.
In shooting down a challenge to Idaho’s abortion laws, the Idaho Supreme Court took a page – or a few – from the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Idaho Supreme Court’s wording and reasoning mimics, at times verbatim, the U.S. Supreme Court’s wording and reasoning in its Dobbs decision.
However, we do not live in 1890 any longer, and an “originalist” reading of the Idaho Constitution, just like the “originalist” reading of the U.S. Constitution, is deeply flawed.
Reducing abortions
Meanwhile, state-level abortion bans do not seem to be drastically reducing the overall number of abortions that take place, according to data from the Society for Family Planning. The abortion rate dropped in states that banned abortion but rose in nearby states that permit it, indicating that lots of women are simply crossing state lines to get abortions. In all, the national abortion rate moved from about 14 per 1,000 live births before Dobbs to 13 per 1,000 after — and that data doesn’t include the growing number of medication abortions performed outside clinical settings, so the true change is even smaller than that.
Read our full editorial here that argues if the true goal is to reduce abortions, there are better ways to do it.
Election integrity
“Despite fears of false and misleading election information resulting in more election worker threats and doubt about the 2022 elections, Idaho appears to have emerged from the midterms relatively unscathed,” writes David Levine, Elections Integrity Fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy.
Levine gives us three ways to bolster the integrity of our elections to ensure 2024 goes just as well, if not better, than 2022.
I’m listening
Send me your story ideas, news tips, questions, comments, or anything else on your mind. You can reach me via email at smcintosh@idahostatesman.com.
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What you’re saying
This week, we received letters to the editor on Trump, the whataboutism of Trump followers and keeping religion out of government. You can read these and more letters by clicking here.
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